Terrorism: Are we ignoring the biggest threat?

Who poses a greater terrorism threat to Americans—Islamic radicals, or right-wing hate groups? asked Steve Coll in NewYorker.com. That’s a provocative question in a nation still gripped by the fear sparked by Sept. 11, but statistics show that the next act of terrorism is just as likely to be the work of right-wing extremists as it is of jihadists inspired by al Qaida. The most recent example, of course, was white supremacist Wade Michael Page, who killed six in a shooting spree at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin. A full 25 percent of the 302 known terrorist incidents and cases in the U.S. since 2001, a new statistical study has found, have involved people like Wade—anti-government extremists and white supremacists. The five most potentially destructive planned attacks, involving chemical, biological, and radiological materials, were all cooked up by right-wing extremists or anarchists—including one nut job who stocked up on 100 pounds of explosives, 100,000 rounds of ammunition, and enough hydrogen cyanide to kill thousands. So why does the threat of right-wing terrorism “seem so poorly publicized?”

Simple—the Right doesn’t want it publicized, said Adam Serwer in MotherJones.com. When the Department of Homeland Security warned publicly in 2009 that right-wing extremist groups posed a major, growing threat, conservatives “went ballistic,” claiming it was an attempt to suppress dissent. What hypocrisy, said Ishaan Tharoor in Time.com. Imagine the Right’s reaction had Page been a Muslim who gunned down white Christians in a Baptist Church. Fox News would be full of grim-faced pundits pronouncing upon the pathologies of Islam, while grandstanding politicians would demand an investigation of “Islamic radicalization” within Muslim-American communities. Can someone explain “why one type of hate seems more tolerable than another”?

It isn’t, but hate alone is not a crime, said former FBI terrorism investigator David Gomez in NYTimes.com. Law enforcement can intervene only when groups or individuals engage in criminal acts. Would you want people jailed for exercising their constitutional right to free speech? Liberals would welcome that, said Michelle Malkin in NationalReview.com. They think homicidal madmen like Page are no different from Tea Party activists, law-abiding gun owners, and other Americans “who embrace the very principles of limited government espoused by our Founding Fathers.” To them, “every conservative is a right-wing terrorist.” That’s a slur, and it is designed to suppress dissent.

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